You Matter More
Malachi Barton x Reader
Summary: you hurt yourself on stage and Malachi doesn’t hesitate
TW: Injury, chronic pain mentioned
genre: Angst
A/n: Yay!!! another one thank you, for real though thank you guys for all the support, love you guys!!
Masterlist
You worried about it, sure. But not in the way Malachi did. It was honestly sweet, he just didn't want you to get hurt or push yourself, and very often he kept you from doing just that. But you were still you, and you didn't want him to worry as much. So you didn’t tell him when you put the brace on before tonight's show because in your mind, it wasn’t a big deal.
You’re one of the dancers on the DZ tour, you were in the new Zombies and Disney decided to keep you on as one of the dancers. The movie is where you met Malachi and eventually started dating him. You love dancing, you’ve been dancing your entire life. But there was one caveat. When you were 15, before you even auditioned for Zombies, you had tripped during a performance and seriously injured your right knee. You were in a brace and on crutches for 2 months and afterwards you would continue to experience chronic pain. It didn’t stop you from dancing though. You still danced, it took a while to get back to the intensity you were used to but you still danced.
You were in the greenroom of the arena, you had gotten a moment away so you could sneakily put on your brace underneath your costume. You hated wearing the brace, Malachi knew you hated wearing the brace. Practically everyone knew. Because wearing the brace was like wearing a badge that said “I’m not as strong as I could be but I can’t do anything about it!”. But you had to wear the brace, on days when your knee was hurting particularly badly. And on these days you weren’t supposed to dance, you weren’t even supposed to walk much. The producers knew it, the other cast and crew knew it, there was a plan for if you couldn’t perform because of your knee, but you didn’t want them to have to use it. So here you were, carefully slipping on your brace so no one would know.
You stepped back out and joined the group again, acting like you didn’t feel the tight grip on the brace around your knee and the pain that was shooting up and down your leg. Just standing and leaning slightly into Malachi’s side as the conversation led on.
“You okay?” he asked you quietly, still holding his hand around your waist as he looked down at you with a curious glance. He could tell something was wrong, of course he could, you had always been an open book to him. But you could still hide things if you wanted to.
“Yeah, I just finished my stretches” you responded simply, giving him a reassuring smile before turning back to the group and laughing at something one of them had said. He could see that you weren’t telling the whole truth, he didn’t know what the truth was but maybe you just didn’t want to say it in front of the group, so he dropped it. For now at least. And you just continued to pretend like nothing was wrong, keeping your weight on your left leg as much as possible so you didn’t feel as much pain from your leg as you just stood there.
The show was going on fine, you just kept a smile on your face and bit the inside of your cheek as you continued to dance to the music. You were so grateful that all your costumes had long pants or else your cover would be blown immediately. Every time you left the stage you immediately sat down and stretched out your leg for a moment before going to change your costume. And Malachi had definitely started to notice this pattern, he felt a growing pit of worry inside of him every time he saw you sit down and squeeze your eyes while grasping at your knee.
“Is your knee okay?” He asked softly, kneeling in front of you, his hands gently finding yours, feeling you squeeze his hand slightly as you looked at him and still pretended like nothing was wrong.
“Yeah, it’s just acting up a little, I'll be fine,” you said, biting your tongue and adjusting your face to try and save yourself the embarrassment. But you shouldn’t be embarrassed. He’s your boyfriend, it’s his job to worry about you. Even still, something about your knee, it always made you embarrassed in front of him. You stood up and he stood with you, keeping your hand in his as you leaned up and kissed his cheek, softly thanking him for checking in on you and turning to get in place for the next song you were in, but he held onto your hand.
“Hey.” he stopped you as you turned, you looked back at him and saw the worry he had. He definitely knew something was wrong. And he hated that you weren’t telling him. But right now he didn’t want to make a scene so he just decided to give you the benefit of the doubt. “You tell me immediately if something's wrong, okay?”
His voice was soft but firm. You always had, you always would. But right now keeping your brace hidden was more than just not worrying him, it was keeping yourself from being embarrassed in front of all the cast and the crew and the audience. Not dancing because of your knee…you didn’t want to know what people would say…what they would assume. “Okay” you said with a soft smile, squeezing his hand before letting go and heading to the other side of the stage for your next entrance.
Everything was fine, the pain hadn't increased and you were more and more hopeful that you’d be able to make it through the entire set. There was a moment in one of the songs when you calypso to the right, landing on your right foot. It’s a move you’d done a million times before, with your brace even, so nothing should have gone wrong. But as soon as you landed on your foot your knee gave out and you slammed against the stage heavily. Biting your tongue so you didn’t let out any distracting noises. Malachi saw how you fell from the wings and his worry immediately took over him. He knew something was wrong, he knew it. And either you hadn't told him or you didn’t realize yourself. It didn't matter though, not right now.
He was at your side in an instant, the crew worked to bring the lights off of you once they got word that a dancer had fallen on stage. You knew that at least some of the crowd had seen you fall, that there were absolutely videos that would hit the internet later tonight or tomorrow. Not just of your fall but of Malachi and a stage hand coming to your side as the lights shifted. You felt the tears in your eyes as you sat on stage, looking around at the lights and the crowds, you felt your heart race, your breath became unsteady as the stage hand tried to ask you questions. But you couldn’t focus. Your knee had given out and you were now in more pain than ever, crying in the corner of the stage as the concert went on around you
“Hey. Don’t look at them, look at me.” Malachi said, grabbing your face gently and turning you to look at him, you looked in his eyes as tears poured from yours. He didn’t have to say anything else. He just grabbed your hand and placed it against his chest like he had done so many times when he could see you panicking and overwhelmed. Letting you feel the rhythm and his heart and follow the pattern of his breathing. After a moment you heard the stage hand speak into his walkie talkie something about getting you off stage. He and Malachi shared a look and both them put an arm over their shoulders so they could get you off stage. They managed to get you onto a chair just off stage and the medical team started to come over as Malachi continued to hold your hand.
“Are you okay? What happened?” You held his hand and let the tears fall from my eyes.
“I landed and my knee just gave out,” You said as the medic asked me to roll up your pant leg. You hesitated for a moment. They'd see your brace. Malachi would know that you had lied to him about how badly your knee was actually hurting today. But after a moment you rolled up your pant leg and showed them your brace. You looked at Malachi’s face, trying to read his expression.
“Your’e wearing your brace? Babe you know you’re not supposed to dance with your brace! Why didn’t you say anything?” He said urgently and firmly, the same worry still laced within. But with something else as well that you couldn’t fully place. You could hear worry in his voice and you could see it on his face but you could tell there was something more hidden with his expression. Anger? maybe, but you couldn’t be sure.
“I’m sorry, I just didn’t want to embarrass myself by not dancing, I didn’t want to let anyone down…” You said softly, choking up a bit. His expression shifted and became softer somehow, still with that underlying tone of something you couldn’t place. He knelt beside you and rested his hands in his own on your left thigh looking at you softly.
“Sweetheart…” he said gently, running his thumb over your knuckles as the medics removed your brace and started to inspect the bruising. But you were only focused on Malachi. “It’s my job to worry about you, and you could never embarrass yourself by not dancing. You hurt your knee, no one is going to be mad at you or laugh at you for sitting out” he said softly, bringing one hand to your face, rubbing your cheek softly. You just let your lip quiver as he leaned up and gave you a side hug, kissing your temple softly.
“It’s not just Mal…this is the biggest show we’ve ever done, I just didn’t want to let everyone down by messing it up” you said, looking down at your knee and wincing slightly as the medics poked around it to find the pressure points and applied the ice accordingly.
“Mess it- sweetheart no!” he said more firmly this time, his voice still filled with worry and love. “You matter more than the show does! I can’t believe you would even think it did” you just sat and listened. He was right. You were being reckless, you had put the value of the show over your own health. And now you had hurt your knee when it was already down.
“I’m sorry Mal, I just..I don’t know…” you trailed off, not even knowing what to say. He just continued to rub your back softly.
“It’s okay sweetheart, I just wish you would’ve told me…” you leaned into his touch and into his side as he continued to rub your back and place small kisses on your temple. You just stared at the ice laying against your bruised knee. You’d definitely be off the stage for a while after this, but right now it didn’t matter.
Turns out your knee was worse than you thought, Malachi helped you back to the busses. Carrying your bag and his as you walked on crutches, waving to the fans and giving them smiles and you made your way to the bus. You settled on the couch in the bus and he came and sat next to you, slinging his arm over your shoulder as you leaned into his side.
“I really am sorry about lying to you Mal, if it helps I did actually think I could make it through the show” you said with a small smile looking up at him. He just watched your smile.
“Stop apologizing. You’re lucky I love you or I would have hounded you for not knowing your limits” he said simply, placing a small kiss on your cheek before leaning back again. You just smiled at him. Listening to his heart. Maybe you couldn’t dance for a few days, but you didn’t care too much about that right now. Because you were here with Malachi, holding you close to him, knowing that no matter what, he would care for you before anything else.
A/n: dancing on a bad knee is a bad idea and you should never do it!! anyway thank you guys 💗💗💗
